1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of cleaning a fluid ejecting apparatus and a fluid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
As a fluid ejecting apparatus, an ink jet printer (hereinafter, referred to as a printer) for ejecting an ink (fluid) from ejecting nozzles of a recording head (ejecting head) onto a recording medium is known. In such a printer, the discharge speed or the discharge amount of the ink from the ejecting nozzles is changed with the elapse of time and thus the discharge state (ejection state) of the ink is changed. Accordingly, in order to maintain the discharge speed or the discharge amount of the ink in a desired range, a process of periodically cleaning the recording head is preformed.
Since bubbles are grown and the ink is thickened in the recording head with the elapse of time, a discharge failure occurs. Accordingly, a printer for performing timer cleaning on the basis of the elapsed time from precedent cleaning or the accumulated print time of the recording head so as to prevent the discharge failure of the ink was suggested (for example, see JP-A-2001-219567). In addition, a printer for checking whether or not a discharge failure occurs and performing cleaning was suggested (for example, see JP-A-2007-021783).
However, if the above-described printer is used, bubbles included in the ink are gradually grown. When a discharge failure test is performed in this state, a normal discharge is detected. However, if a print process of discharging a relatively large amount of ink is performed, bubbles are compressed in a channel by the amount of moving fluid so as to close the channel. Accordingly, a plurality of nozzles is clogged and thus a desired print process cannot be performed.